Makin Waves' annual holiday gift to the New Jersey music scene turns 27 this year with a bevy of goodness, particularly for top winner Ocean Avenue Stompers with three. The awards go to Jersey-based independent bands. And here we go ...

Band of the Year: Yawn Mower — This beloved Asbury Park indie band celebrated a decade together with the release of their sophomore full-length, “I Just Can’t Wait to Die,” on Mint 400 Records. Four fun, tongue-in-cheek videos promoted the LP, which they’ll continue to support with extensive touring.

Male Artist of the Year: Arlan Feiles — The Jersey Shore-based composer and co-star of the hot ticket, “The Devil and Daisy Dirt,” also released “Diaspora,” what may be his best album, which is a hard feat given his canon of self-produced/released greatness that previously won him the Makin Waves Songwriter of the Year Award.

Female Artist of the Year: Renee Maskin — One of the hardest-working artists in the Jersey scene, Asbury Park-based Renee Maskin followed her latest Mint 400 Records LP, “Is It Real,” with the nostalgically heartfelt single, “Wonderland,” which she released on her own. Both the album and single featured fantastic videos by Renee’s partner, internationally acclaimed filmmaker John Decker. This marks the third time Renee has won this award. She’s also won Songwriter of the Year once, as well as Video of the Year for a second time this year.

Best New Artist: Tiny Cities — Their cities may be tiny, but their work ethic is enormous! This North Jersey duo of singer-songwriters Dennis King, aka Son of Dov, and Melissa Anthony, released an original four-song EP, a cover four-song EP, and two original singles, one of which, “Body Cast,” is the first from a sophomore EP due Jan. 16 on Hidden Tracks Records. Prolific!

Album of the Year: “Diaspora,” Arlan Feiles — This heartbreaking journey through the horrors that the Jewish Diaspora has faced during and after the Holocaust is a plea for peace and cry for justice that the splintering world desperately needs.

Best EP: “Too Easy to Kill,” Emerson Woolf & the Wishbones, — Right after Asbury Park’s Emerson Woolf & the Wishbones released this second EP in as many years — which sandwiched a 2024 full-length debut — they got signed by Cali indie Broke Records. The label now is promoting the five-song “Too Easy to Kill,” so it’s getting even more national airplay. Emerson is gonna own 2026!

Song of the Year: “My Best,” The Well Wish — Parenting is the most joyous part of life, but it also can be very tough. It’s even tougher when you have to balance being a working musician. The Makin Waves Song of the Year, “My Best,” is an ode to parents by the Jersey Shore husband-and-wife (and mom-and-dad) team of vocalist Anya Angeloni and  guitarist Patrick J. Angeloni.

Songwriter of the Year: Brielle Brown — Jersey Shore singer-songwriter Brielle Brown’s latest and greatest album, “In Art & Soil the Same,” was written over the course of a 15-month long fellowship with The Witness Institute, which continues the work of Nobel laureate Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel. The Institute aims to activate and empower leaders to act with humility, reflection, and sensitivity, and, in turn, to influence their communities towards moral action. And if that isn’t inspiring enough, three of the album’s songs were co-written by Brielle’s Grammy-winning husband and producer Marc Swersky.

Best Live Act: Ocean Avenue Stompers — If you love New Orleans music, especially brass bands, as much as I do, you’ll love this Asbury Park band, who play every Monday at Asbury’s R Bar, throughout each Sea.Hear.Now, in tribute to “Merry Christmas, Charlie Brown,” and often elsewhere to much glee.

Tsunami Award: Bill Brandenburg, Music on Main Street — Once upon a time, the word impresario meant something special in the music industry. Two that come to mind are Ed Sullivan and Bill Graham. He may be part of a dying breed, but on a local level, Bill Brandenburg of Woodbridge Arts’ Music on Main Street program is every bit an impresario — whether presenting free shows with internationally acclaimed artists all summer in Parker Press Park or a ticketed sonic tapestry of majestic jazz, folk, roots, prog and more at Avenel Performing Arts Center.  Woodbridge is understandably grateful to have him.

Best Vocalist: Deseree Spinks, Des & the Swagmatics — The lil’ sista of Aretha Franklin, Chaka Khan and Whoopi Goldberg is the R&B-beating heart and sweet, sunny soul of funky Asbury Park. This year, Des & the Swagmatics released “My Place,” their first single since 2020. I hope there’s more soon.

Best Guitarist: Jimmy Law and Brian Murray, Dogs in a Pile and Murray’s Law — Whether the jazz of Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie or the rock of Duane Allman and Dickey Betts, the dual solo is a sweet, slick, sexy thing. In the Garden State, nobody does it better than Jimmy Law and Brian Murray of Asbury Park’s Dogs in a Pile and their duo, Murray’s Law.

Best Bassist: Dan Haase — Whether growing his new career as a singer-songwriter or serving as a sideman to Asbury singer-songwriter Rachel Ana Dobken, this consummate musician is as good as they come in helping to lay down a groove. This is the second win for Dan Haase in this category.

Best Drummer: Eric Brody, The Azures — I love covering second generation musicians in Makin Waves. Eric Brody is one, but he’s also a fantastic and inventive drummer who cements the wonderful weirdness of the great Jersey Shore psychedelic blues band The Azures with rock-steady beats, tasty grooves and funky flourishes.

Best Keyboardist: Mark Masefield — This richly talented Jersey Shore keyboardist can play absolutely anything that has keys from an accordion to a synthesizer, but it’s his soulful Hammond B3 playing that I love best. Recording and touring regularly with Philly singer-songwriter Dave Hause and frequently sitting in with Ocean Avenue Stompers, Mark also added greatly this year to sessions by Will Hoge, Jared Hart, Joanne Bird, Mike Frazier, and Sean Tobin.

Best Instrumentalist: Ian Gray, Ocean Avenue Stompers — The founding music director, arranger and trombonist of Ocean Avenue Stompers, Ian Gray brings the kind of brass-fueled joy to Asbury Park that Southside & the Asbury Jukes and Arthur Pryor did before him. But the caveat is that the Stompers also sound like an Asbury inversion of a NOLA brass band. Go see them Mondays at The R Bar (take Tuesday off if you have to).

Producer of the Year: Joe “Pom” Pomarico. Besides producing his own anthem, “Holding Out Hope,” as well as his hysterical cowbell clips, Pom produced and released this year on his Telegraph Hill label material by Des and the Swagmatics, Alexander Simone and WHODAT? Live Crew, The Foes of Fern, and No Jersey. As a studio manager and senior engineer at Atlantic Records, he also worked with Kevian Kraemer, booking him in the studio, doing live sound for him, and even hopping up on stage with him when needed to add more cowbell at a show.

Video of the Year: “Wonderland,” Renee Maskin and John Decker — This marks year two in this category for this dynamic duo and delightful local power couple. Gentrification is a bittersweet Pushmi-Pullyu that lifts some ships — no gangs on Grand Avenue — but sinks others, like the punk haven of Asbury Lanes. Renee’s look at Ocean City’s Wonderland Pier amusements, which is being leveled into a luxury hotel, is as warmly nostalgic as it is bitingly brilliant! Life and visual partner John Decker once again has translated her lyrical and musical vision into a stunning work that will continue to cement his name at film festivals.

Bob Makin has produced Makin Waves since 1988. Follow Makin Waves on Facebook and Instagram and contact Bob at [email protected].